Container closure assembly



May 13, 1969 w. P. POST 3,443,718

CONTAINER CLOSURE ASSEMBLY Filed April 25, 1966 Sheet of 2 INVENTOR W/l-LEH P. P

BY aw @Mvw ATTORNEYJ May 13, 1969 w. P. POST CONTAINER CLOSURE ASSEMBLY Sheet Filed April 25, 1966 FIG.6

u a u u n a xv 471.

lazin INVENTOR W/u EH 7 P05 1' BY www ATTORNEYS Uted States Patent 3,443,718 CONTAINER CLOSURE ASSEMBLY Willem Pieter Post, Burgemeester Arriensweg 7, Diepenveen, Netherlands Filed Apr. 25, 1966, Ser. No. 544,751 Int. Cl. B65d 41/06 US. Cl. 220-40 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A container having a circular opening in at least one of the walls thereof, an upstanding wall surrounding the circular opening and projecting outwardly with respect to the container wall and a closure member fitting into the upstanding wall surrounding the opening. The closure member is provided with circumferentially spaced radially projecting locking members and axially directed recesses corresponding to the locking members are provided in the upstanding wall for permitting the locking members to pass. Further locking members provided with inwardly inclined working surfaces joining the radial recesses in the upstanding wall and being arranged in the container wall surrounding the upstanding wall.

The invention relates to a container provided with a generally circular opening in at least one of its walls, which opening possesses an upstanding wall projecting outwardly with respect to the container wall and circumferentially spaced inclined locking members provided with inwardly directed bearing surfaces adapted to co-operate with correspondingly inclined locking members at the periphery of the closure member.

Such a closure assembly is already known, in which the rim of the opening is first bent outwardly with respect to the container wall and then bent inwardly again with the locking members being formed at the inside of the inner wall part by partially struck-out portions with a suitably inclined flat bottom edge. These struck-out bearing surfaces indeed gives a somewhat resilient connection, but on the other hand the whole assembly will cause difliculties in that after emptying of the container always a bit will remain in the container which cannot be removed. Besides such a closure assembly is rather complicated to manufacture and it cannot be applied to containers of rather thin materials.

The invention aims at meeting the above drawbacks and accordingly the invention first aims at providing a closure assembly of which the two parts can each be made by a single operation, so that the whole closure assembly can be rapidly and cheaply manufactured.

Further, the invention aims at providing a closure assembly which can be provided with a sealing cap after being closed.

According to the invention these objects are attained in that the locking members of the opening are formed along the bottom of the upstanding rim thereof in the container wall by depressions made in this wall. Preferably, the construction is made in such a manner that the inner circumferential wall parts of the depressions lie flush or substantially flush with the circumferential surface of the upstanding side wall of the opening.

With such closure assemblies, the container can be completely emptied and in addition each of the two parts of the assembly can be manufactured in a single operation. Furthermore, the invention has the advantage that it can also be made with thin sheet material, so that it is not only of interest for large containers such as drums, but also for small and light containers.

The invention will now be further elucidated with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which an example of performance is shown. In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a view in top elevation of the opening construction of a container closure assembly according to the invention without the closure member,

FIG. 2 is a view in cross-section taken along the line 11-11 in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a view in cross-section taken along the line III-III FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is a view in top elevation of the closure member,

FIG. 5 is a view in cross-section of the closure member taken along the line V-V in FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 is a view in cross-section of the closure member taken along the line VIVI in FIG. 4,

FIG. 7 is a view in partial cross-section of the whole closure assembly on enlarged scale in the closed position,

FIG. 8 is a view in partial cross-section on enlarged scale of the whole closure assembly with a sealing cap, all parts shown loosely above one another, and

FIG. 9 is a vie-w in cross-section similar to FIG. 8, in which the parts are shown in the closed and seal condition.

In FIGURES 1-3 container wall 1 is provided with a generally round opening having an upstanding circumferential wall 2 of which the upper part widens outwardly at 2 and extreme end portion 2" is folded back inwardly over the widened part 2', thus avoiding the formation of a sharp rim and at the same time the circumferential wall 2 as a whole is considerably reinforced mechanically so that it can take up high closing forces. The wall 2 is bent out with respect to the container wall so that the container can be completely emptied without a bit being retained therein. In the upstanding wall 2 of the opening generally cylindrical recesses 3 having their axis parallel to the axis of the opening are formed at regular mutual distances. In the illustrated embodiment four such recesses are provided at angles of These recesses serve for letting through a corresponding number of radial projections forming the locking members of the closure member which will be later described in more detail. Between the radial recesses 3 the container wall lying around the upstanding wall of the opening is provided with recesses impressed from the outside immediately beside the upstanding wall of the container opening. The depressions are caused to become gradually deeper in the clockwise direction starting from each of the recessess, so as to form inclined bearing surfaces 4 at the inside of the container wall. The inclined bearing surfaces merge into depression parts 4" of which the bottom surfaces are parallel to the container wall 1 and which in turn merge into depression parts 4' which are suddenly deeper and form end stops before the next radial recess 3.

Such openings in the container wall can be manufactured in a single simple mechanical operation by means of adequate tools, whereby at the same time the right dimensions are automatically guaranteed in an exact manner. With cylindrical containers, the openings are preferably made in one of the flat end walls of the container, but when the diameter of the opening is not too large compared with the diameter of the container wall, the opening may also be made in the side wall thereof. If necessary, in such a case the cylindrical side wall of the container may be partially flattened, so that the opening can be made in the flattened portion.

A closure member 5 which is shown in FIGURES 4-6 can be made by pressing, rolling or like operations. The closure member is cup-shaped with a generally cylindrical side wall and an upper rim flanged to the outside as at 8, and in the cylindrical side wall thereof bulges 6 projecting radially outwardly and notches 7 directed inwardly are impressed. The number and the location of the bulges 6 correspond with those of the radial recesses 3 in the upstanding wall of the opening in the container wall, while the notches 7 serve for inserting a special tool for turning the closure member for engagement or disengagement purposes.

As shown in FIGURES 7-9 a ring 9 of elastic sealing material is interposed under the flanged rim 8 around the neck of the closure member 5, While if desired a further cup-shaped sealing cap 10 with a cylindrical wall can additionally be applied. In the corner between the bottom wall and the upstanding side wall of the cap, a further elastic sealing ring 11 of compressible material, e.-g. rubber or a synthetic material with adjacent properties, can be arranged.

The closing or opening of the container closure according to the invention occurs as follows:

The closure member 5 is brought over the opening in the container as shown in FIGURE 8, in such a manner that the bulges 6 correspond with the inserting recesses 3 in the upstanding wall 2 of the opening in the container wall 1. Then, the closure member 5 is allowed to slip down into the opening and thereafter a tool (not shown) is inserted into the cup-shaped closure member, such that it co-operates with the notches 7 extend-ing radially inwardly from the side wall 5 thereof. If the tool is then turned in the clockwise direction, the upper surfaces of the bulges 6 will slide up on the inclined locking member surfaces 4 until they reach the flat end parts thereof and finally abut against the end stop portions 4'. By this sliding up of the bulges 6 on the locking surfaces 4 and by the fact that these locking surfaces and the bulges are regularly arranged along the periphery of the opening in the container and the closure member 5 respectively, this latter is evenly pulled inwardly. By this movement of the closure parts with respect to one another the elastic sealing ring 9 is firmly compressed between the widened part and flanged rim 8, the uper portion of the walls of the closure member and the flanged rim 8 thereof, whereby a perfect scaling is obtained. When the container is to be opened, then the tool is again placed into the cup-shaped closure member and is rotated the anticlockwise direction whereby the bulges 6 slide olT from the bearing surfaces 4, which is further stimulated by the expansion of the resilient sealing ring 9 whereby the closure member is pushed upwardly. After a rotation to such an extent that the bulges 6 lie in the radial recesses 3 in the upstanding wall of the opening, the closure member can be removed.

If desired, the closed container can be further sealed as shown in FIGURES 8 and 9. For this purpose, after insertion of the closure member 5 and bringing it in the sealing position, a cup-shaped sealing cap 10 is then arranged over the closed closure assembly with its upstanding wall 12 lying around the main sealing and pressed down upon the flange 8 of the closure member, where the sealing ring 11 is firmly compresed as shown in FIGURE 9, whereafter the bottom rim of the upstanding wall 12 is bent inwardly against the underside of the widened upper portion of the folded rim 2" of the upstanding opening wall 2. This sealing cap then at the same time gives an additional sealing of the whole closure assembly.

In order that the seal obtained by the sealing cap can be easily broken, the sealing cap may consist of an adequate synthetic material or it may be provided with a tearing tongue.

The flat portion 4" which is parallel to the container wall and lies behind the inclined locking surface 4', in the direction of rotation of the closure member for closing, may, if desired, also be made slanting slightly upwardly again in order that the closure member will be locked additionally in the closed position.

This invention is not to be confined to any strict conformity to the showings in the drawings but changes or modifications may be made therein so long as such changes or modifications mark no material departure from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A container having a circular opening in at least one of the walls thereof, an upstanding wall surrounding the circular opening and projecting outwardly with respect to the container wall, a closure member fitting into said upstanding wall surrounding the opening, said closure member having circumferentially spaced radially projecting locking members, said upstanding wall having axially directed recesses corresponding to the locking members allowing the locking members of the closure member to pass, and further locking members having inwardly inclined working surfaces joining the radial recesses in the upstanding wall arranged in the container walls surrounding the upstanding wall 2. The container as claimed in claim 1 in which the container locking members are defined by depressions impressed in the container wall from the outside thereof.

3. The container as claimed in claim 2, in which the impressions defining the container locking members are impressed so that the inner sidewall thereof lie substantially flush with the inner surface of the upstanding wall.

4. The container as claimed in claim 1, including an elastic sealing lying between said locking members and further locking members.

5. The container as claimed in claim 4 including a sealing cap defined by a cup-shaped member having a cylindrical side wall adapted to overlie the closure member and a portion of the upstanding wall, and an elastic sealing ring located between the cylindrical side wall, the closure member and the portion of the upstanding wall.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,715,146 5/1929 Fletcher 220-40 2,661,863 12/1953 Howe 220-4O JAMES B. MARBERT, Primary Examiner. 

